Jaroslav Svelch's paper for MiT7 (Media in Transition 7) "Indiana Jones Fights the Communist Police: Text Adventures as a Transitional Media Form in the 1980s Czechoslovakia" (pdf) (via Nick Monfort) gives an interesting look at how gaming in Czechoslovakia started with a number of unlicensed fan fiction-like text adventures like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ("the original film was only released in Czechoslovakia in 1990 – it is likely that [developer František Fuka] saw it on a pirated VHS. For many players, this game was their first contact with this media franchise.") Later, a text game The Adventures of Indiana Jones in Wenceslas Square in Prague on January 16, 1989 takes a more blatent fan fiction style ("The game takes place during the Jan Palach Week in January 1989 that saw violence by the Public Security (Veřejná bezpečnost, the police force in the Communist Czechoslovakia) and the People’s Militia against a peaceful gathering commemorating the 30th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach. Indy is caught on Wenceslas Square, where the clash took place, and has to find his way back into the United
States. This involves brutal disposal of the members of law enforcement")

[In] 1989, only 1.8% Czech households owned a computer... Video game console market was virtually non-existent. As for software, first mentions of original copies of computer games being sold in the country surfaced in early 1989, mere months before the Velvet Revolution... Despite these limitations, there was a lively community of home computer users, many of
whom played computer games, including text adventures. Informal systems of distribution were in place, forming a shadow economy as well as a space for free sharing of software...

Although there was a vibrant text adventure market in the U.S. and the U.K., English-language ...

Transience, originally released on Art Fag City, is an image essay containing rental-listing photos
from Craigslist. The photos were found in April 2011. The 13 sets presented are taken from various
locations as Guam, Mankato, Kenai, Quad Cities, Fairbanks, Thailand, Singapore, Cebu, Vancouver,
The Virgin Islands, Huntington, Cape Cod, and Treasure Coast. The similarity between so many
displaced different locations arise questions about visual globalization of our domestic settings and
ways of living.
The work 116, 74, 23 is a field recording from Second Life. The title of this recording comes from the
specific location in 'Prefab Houses by GALLAND HOMES' where the audio was recorded. The
recording is taken from the conversation between two women discussing their avatar appearances
while they hang out in a pre-fabricated house. The music in the background, barely perceivable comes
from the internet radio station martiniinthemorning.com and accompany their conversations.
Tiles is a selection of 10 found animated gifs used for online real estate listings. Each gif is repeated
as a tiled background, creating a graphical visual pattern. The last work, Transitions, is a selection of
9 amateur You-tube videos that show residential and commercial spaces.Both Tiles and Transitions show random found locations, connected and not to their original spaces.
The found images, reverted in a visual manner are able to confuse the spectator and loose its
geographical affiliation arising questions of differentiation and cultural identity through the digital
representation of the domestic space.

Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from January through May 2013. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.

The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 5 months. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.

QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.

TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Dec 28, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is January 2013.

Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from September through December 2012. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.

The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 4 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.

QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.

TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Aug 24, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is Sept 17, 2012.

Thanks so much for these comments. You are right that the New Aesthetic is a broad conversation, but James Bridle's investigation is definitely political, unfortunately many of his points have been missed in the ongoing metacommentary. It seems a lot of people are confused by the visuals, which aren't *the* the New Aesthetic so much as artifacts *of* the New Aesthetic.

The NA Tumblr was Bridle thinking out loud, and something to consider in tandem with his writing/talks. Meanwhile, the conversation about these ideas has gone on for over a year now, over a number of blogs, mostly based in London

In addition to James Bridle's talks and notes, this is what I recommend reading to understand what the New Aesthetic conversation is really about:

Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from June through September 2012. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.

The Editorial Fellow must be based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 3 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.

QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and new media. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.

TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline May 4, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is June 4, 2012.